Finding righteous currents in turbulent times

Archive for the tag “radio”

UCLA ethnomusicology professor Tim Taylor talks with Kennedy from Reason.TV about the rise of music in radio advertising and the early days of television. Taylor is the author of a book — The Sounds of Capitalism: Advertising, Music and the Conquest of Culture.

From the early days of radio through the rise of television after World War II to the present, music has been used more and more often to sell goods and establish brand identities. And since at least the 1920s, songs originally written for commercials have become popular songs, and songs written for a popular audience have become irrevocably associated with specific brands and products. Today, musicians move flexibly between the music and advertising worlds, while the line between commercial messages and popular music has become increasingly blurred.

Liberal David Sirota gets schooled by conservative Michael Rosen in the Battle of the Talk Show Hosts in Denver, Colorado. Sirota is the loudmouth who curses like a drunken sailor, but probably couldn’t fight his way out of a wet paper bag. He has his own radio show in Denver and is also (natch) a Democratic political strategist. Rosen hosts his own show on KOA radio in Denver. H/T Reveal Politics

Huber Hoyos’ early Sunday morning broadcast every week on Caracol Radio has a small but vital audience — the more than 1,000 hostages held captive by FARC guerrillas in the jungles of Colombia. Hoyos, a former hostage himself, calls his show “The Voices of Kidnapping.” His guests are relatives of the hostages who use the program to communicate with their loved ones. Lauren Rosenfeld profiles these families in her new documentary, Captive Radio, winner of the 2012 Hearst Documentary Award. Here’s an excerpt from the film, recently uploaded by ifilestv, a news-oriented YouTube channel curated by the Center for Investigative Reporting.

Twenty-five years ago, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously repealed the Fairness Doctrine, which required broadcasters to air all sides of controversial issues. The Fairness Doctrine sounds, shall we say, “fair,” in theory. But in practice, the doctrine had a chilling impact on free speech, due to the fact that “there is a frontal conflict between the First Amendment…and the government considering whether or not the fairness of a particular report passes muster,” says George Mason University’s Thomas Hazlett.

Hazlett sat down with Reason.TV’s Nick Gillespie to discuss the Fairness Doctrine and how its repeal — under President Ronald Reagan — helped to give rise to talk radio in the form we know it today.

In his one-minute “Save Us Chuck” radio spot, longtime game show host Chuck Woolery reflects on the month of June, when only 80,000 new jobs were created, yet 85,000 Americans applied for disability. Woolery opines that we’re in the midst of a disability crisis, noting, “It seems we’re injuring people 19 percent faster than we’re creating jobs.” H/T Capitalist Preservation

Ezra Levant, pundit with the Sun News Network in Canada, is on a roll, fighting back against the “sad Eeyores” of the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council who have made it their mission to censor him. Not only is Levant coming out swinging, but so are the CBSC censors, who he says are transforming from “Eeyores” into Green Hulksters, hellbent to “smash” him. Just how big a threat do these censors pose? Hard to say judging the situation from afar here in the States, but bear in mind that the CBSC is the same ridiculous outfit that recently upbraided a Canadian radio station for playing Dire Straits’ song Money for Nothing. It seems one listener had complained, more than 25 years later, because the 1985 song contained the derogatory word “faggots.”